Connecting, creating, and challenging: my CHI 2025 reflections, Kim Snooks
Kim Snooks talks about presenting her research on digital identities at the 2025 CHI conference. Published 10 June 2025.
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of attending CHI 2025 in Japan to present my paper with Dan Richards Becoming Sandwich Makers: Exploring Provocative Worlds through an Artist Residency. In design, we use speculative approaches such as world building, creating fictional artefacts or “provotypes” to explore and debate perceptions of future technologies. This paper explained how we used an artist residency to form part of our world building process, disseminating insights from our completed Digital Good Network research project Exploring “Good” Digital Identity Futures. This paper is now available to read here, if you want to learn more about our work.
For those not familiar with this conference, it is the leading human-computer interaction (HCI) conference, drawing in academics and industry professionals from across the world to learn about the latest research in HCI. I’ve attended CHI once online, but never in person before and it was a fantastic opportunity as an early career researcher to connect with lots of researchers with similar interests, reconnect with people from other conferences and meet people whose work has been hugely influential in my own research.
The conference begins!
The conference started with an opening plenary, including a beautiful calligraphy performance by artist Aoyagi Bisen describing what CHI means to her. Additionally, there was a keynote from Mutale Nkonde, a researcher who discussed the ethical harms that can arise from technology and what we can do as computer scientists, designers etc. in the HCI space working on these technologies. Mutale’s work resonated well with the Digital Good Network’s values, making sure technology is truly inclusive. After several in-depth paper sessions, the day ended with a reception. This included interactivity demos such as the popular Karaok-AI which used generative AI to transform academic papers into lyrics. There was also the opportunity to take part in some traditional Japanese crafts such as tatami and origami.
Alt.chi
I attended many sessions throughout the conference that overlapped with my own interests around personal data, wellbeing and more-than human perspectives. However, my favourite sessions by far were the alt.chi sessions (perhaps biased as this is where I presented our paper!) which provided a range of diverse, creative approaches to research.
Alt.chi pushes the boundaries, allowing work that critiques or challenges accepted norms with HCI research and highlights research that would not necessarily be part of the main conference tracks. Alt.chi encourages different presentation styles eg, using prerecorded videos to represent alternative realities for exploring historical artefacts, performances with props like capes and moustaches to explain topics such as inclusive practices for autism in HCI, and ways to use found footage in design fiction. This might also mean engaging the audience by handing out tiny scrolls with paper excerpts and stickers (see the picture!).
Papers in this track resonated well with the Digital Good Network, with overlapping interests such as the challenges transgender people face when name is a required field in digital systems. As well as two different papers which highlighted a need for better language inclusion in HCI, with additional barriers created through conference requirements to write, review and publish in English. These requirements do not accommodate cultural nuances and language structures in different native languages.
Presenting our work
To present our paper in an alternative way, I used a hat prop to embody the role of both a sandwich maker and a customer. When I had the hat on I became the sandwich maker, someone with the expertise of creating worlds and when the hat came off, I was a customer, acting as a researcher who wanted to explore different ways to develop their worlds.
This approach allowed me to explain both what we did in the project and how this could be helpful for designers looking to apply a similar approach to their own research. The presentation went well and helped me to understand the power of a metaphor, with people later noting “ah, you’re the sandwich lady!” which I’m taking to mean the presentation was memorable! Unfortunately, this was the last alt.chi so I’m so thankful I was able to finally go in person and see all the wonderful research emerging. I’m hoping something new grows in its place so there continues to be a space that incorporates research that might otherwise be missed out of conferences altogether.
Other conference highlights
Aside from presenting my work, there were so many things happening at the conference that made it such a unique experience. There was a feminist HCI picnic and an LGBTQ+ special interest group where we discussed how to keep each other safe and supported despite challenges across the world. One evening, researchers from across Europe (Nord.chi) hosted an event for researchers to network and I got the chance to meet some people working in very similar areas. I also had the opportunity to attend one of the cultural matcha tea experiences at the conference. I loved learning more about the process that goes into matcha, and the history and culture involved in tea preparation.
The conference ended with a closing ceremony which featured a talk from Masako Wakamiya, around how we might rethink inclusion and interaction in a 100-year life, given her own experiences around older people’s interactions with technology. Her talk was inspiring, highlighting the different ways people can adapt technologies to create artwork and embrace new tools. It showed how even in later stages in life, there is always time to learn and discover something new.
After the conference I had a bit of time to explore Japan, including a cat shrine and Miraikan, an emerging science and tech museum filled with robots and interactive exhibits about the future of aging and sustainable living. I’ve had such a great experience attending CHI in Japan and I hope the sessions I attended and the people I met will help influence my research journey. I am so grateful that the Digital Good Network gave me this opportunity to present our work in Yokohama, and I hope reading this gave a little insight into what CHI 2025 was like!
About the author
Kim Snooks
Kim Snooks undertook a postdoctoral research position in Design for Digital Good as part of the Digital Good Network between 2023 and 2024. She worked with Dr Dan Richards on research on ‘good’ future digital identities, drawing on concepts of the self and identity from personal informatics and social media research.
Kim studied for her PhD in Design at ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University. She used speculative methods to critically examine future health-tracking technologies. Drawing on more-than human theory, she explored how different perspectives of contextualised personal informatics data might be included in system design.